Welcome 2010!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year, and is going to have an amazing 2010. Today is the first day back for me and I have so much to blog about and so many blogs to catch up on!

For today however I thought I would share my holiday and hopefully tomorrow I can share my plans for 2010, let's just say this year is going to be huge, so much to do.

Our holiday started with a trip to the Zoo, Mum found a free entry coupon so we spent the day there and it was really great. I haven't been since school so I really enjoyed it, although I wouldn't bother going full price at $41 each, I can think of other things to do with that money.

The next day it was up t0 the Hunter Valley to spend time with The Boy's parents. Yes she started talking to us again and once we got there it all seemed to be the proverbial water under the bridge, aside from a few remarks everything was ok. We were there until late Christmas Eve and I finally stopped being on my best behaviour and was just myself. I relaxed completely and I think they like the real me even more (as opposed to the Elissa that has to be on show all the time to let them know I am a suitable partner for The Boy - all in my head of course). While there I was able to fine tune my newly acquired boganista skills and can now mix it with the best of them up there. It is weird though, I kinda like it, like my inner bogan was just hiding inside of me all this time waiting to come out, although I could never give her free reign, that is just not my style.

I was completely spoiled on Christmas as The Boy gave me a Wii and hence we almost missed Christmas Lunch because I couldn't pull myself away from it. You know, we had to connect it all up just to make sure it was working.

I totally blew my monthly budget in one day at the post Christmas sales, but at least now I have the most divine bedding and with a few other accessories have created the bedroom just how I want it. It is now our little haven for romance and relaxation. I am back to journalling again because I love sitting on the one seater couch in the bedroom just writing, it is heavenly. I even managed to convince The Boy that yes we did need 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets, although I am afraid to use them as they are so good. In fact the only thing I actually bought for myself was a nice pair of gold sandals and a new filofax, I am so turning into the lady of the house!

Before the new year The Boy and I went to the movies, gold class. It was my first time and I cannot go back now. I love the space of Gold Class and the limited seating and the fact there are no teenagers yelling and screaming behind me. We saw Avatar 3D and if you have not seen this movie I insist you go. I didn't think I would like it, but I loved every second of it and 3D was just amazing, and hello Sam Worthington - my new celeb crush!

And finally The Boy and I hosted out first every party. We had both our families over for New Years Eve which meant lots and lots of cleaning, so I am not in a hurry to do it again, but it was a lot of fun and a success so I am confident in my "hosting" abilities. Just thought I would test out my skills on the family first.

From New Years Day until this morning we have cocooned ourselves in The Penthouse recovering from the entire two weeks and sleeping in till 11 only to get up, have breakfast and park ourselves on the sofa until dinner time. The perfect end to a much needed holiday. If only I didn't have to be brought back to reality this morning. I was so happy.

Counting Down

Only four more days of work, including today, then a whole 2 weeks of holidays. I am actually having a good work week cos I am alone in the office. Basically I work for a small company of scientists and a technician (the male boss, he has no formal qualifications) and as such they spend a lot of time "off site". Except the male boss, but since one of the girls quit (now it is just me and the lovely Miss T, one down, two to go) he is now having to get out a lot and hence I am alone most of the time this week and loving it. It gives me time to search for another job too. Not that anyone is advertising just before Christmas.

Yes the job hunt continues. I have discovered that employers on the Central Coast don't seem that keen to place ad's up on Seek. On our weekend away while ducking into the local bottle shop I noticed the local paper, the Express Advocate, sitting on the counter, I took one and turned to the back and found 4 pages of job ads! The Boy looks over and says, "Oh yeah, we get that paper at work, at the security gates."

HELLO!! How long have I been complaining about my job and how many times have you told me to find something on the Coast?? So every Friday I send him at least 10 sms's reminding him to bring one home. I have a new ritual on Friday's after work. Devouring the Central Coast local paper looking at real estate and jobs. Is that sad or does it just mean I am so ready to move?

Anyway, feeling quite calm in the lead up to Christmas (despite all of last week's drama). I have bought every present (except one) and they are even all wrapped. I made the labels above for the gifts. I had to make them before I could wrap anything. I purchased 5 A4 sheets of metallic red cardboard for $5. The Boy pointed out that we could have just bought cheap labels from K-Mart for that price. Men! Of course we could have, but where is the love? Where is that little touch of hand made that makes it stand out from the stock standard gifts they get from everyone else? Of course once he saw my wonderful collection on the table he quickly changed his mind and gave me a kiss on the check telling me I was so creative. $5 for an afternoon of being worshiped and praised seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And finally I have started my next project. Going for cross stitch this time for a change. It is meant to be a gift but I am really loving the pattern and am tempted to keep it. I shouldn't. If I want to increase the home made stuff next Christmas I should probably get to work on them now. Or I could just save myself the effort and buy something from K-mart.

I Have A New Addiction

Thanks to last weekend I am now addicted to weekends away. Last weekend was such a big deal because I have not been away for years! The A Word had a lot to do with that, but I was also shocked that The Boy and I had been together for so long and we hadn't even had a mini break together. How did that happen? And weekends spent in the Hunter Valley with his parents I do not consider a mini break. I find those highly stressful, noisy and full of country music songs that I don't know the words to.

So this week I have spent too much time surfing the web making a massive list of all the places we can stay at. I have covered the areas of Port Stephens, Hunter Valley (won't be telling his parents about this), Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury River, South Coast and the Southern Highlands. Yes I am addicted. However, the fact that we stayed at such a nice place, I think it was 4.5 star, doesn't help because I honestly feel I cannot accept anything less than that. Yes I am a Princess, but after the experience of the double spa I could not imagine a weekend away without one. It was so much better than getting a massage to work the knots out of my back. And of course there was the sparkling and cheese plate on arrival, which I will expect every time now (unless the cheese was replaced with chocolate).

We are already planning the next one, in Feb after all the kids are back at school, and I have even pulled out a clean pasta jar to start the "Holiday Fund". I have been bitten and there is no going back. As I sit here I just keep thinking, "This time last week I was going away." Although I won't be hitting the coast this weekend it is still going to be just as amazing, spending time with lots of wonderful people, just the way weekends should be spent.

The Boy took the photo above, he is great at taking photos, I took the ones below, clearly a huge drop in quality but that is ok, he takes the photos and I do the words, perfect team :)

The Bedroom complete with very plush bedding and a tv and dvd player. Loving the feature wall and want to have something like that once we have our own place.

The double spa. And yes that is The Boy (aka Frank Spencer) pouring Sparkling into a wine glass because he kinda broke the champange flute. I left it on the bench, well away from the edge but he still managed to knock it over. That's my boy and I love him.

Could someone please tell me why I cannot wake up to this every day?

It's About Time....

That I returned to the blogsphere, and also returned to my old self. Yes I am pleased to report that I am back on the other side, the happy one where the sides of my mouth actually turn upwards.

I would love to say that as soon as I look my little blogging break everything magically got better. But it didn't. In fact I totally redrew (is that a word?) myself from everything and everyone. No blog reading (so much to catch up on!) no emails, and no phone calls. I hardly even saw my mum who is only about 500m down the road. A few days later I felt I was about to have a nervous breakdown, my anxiety had come back with a passion and I was full of anger. I told The Boy, that was it, we needed a holiday and that night we booked for a weekend away (we booked it about 9 days in advance, which for us is definitely considered spur of the moment).

So last weekend The Boy took me up the coast and we found ourselves at this amazing B&B. It was the most wonderful weekend of my life and it was what I needed and it was what allowed me to turn back around and get happy again and re-gain focus and just be me. I had forgotten who I was, I was just so caught up in unhappiness and frustration. I knew the weekend would help but I didn't realise just how much. It changed everything and The Boy and I gained so much from it. We realised that we really were focusing on the wrong things and our priorities have changed as a result. We also let go of a lot of inhibitions and just lived, for example I actually found a swimsuit that fit my current body and yes I wore it on the beach in front of people and oddly enough I didn't care. In fact the "I wonder what these people are thinking of me" thought didn't even enter my head!

Anyway, the weekend changed a lot, and made clear to us what we need to focus on, what is important and to also have fun. We were even more spontaneous because twenty minutes after we left on Sunday morning we rang the owner up to find out if we could stay one more night. Which we did and we left at 7am and I got to work right on time, although could barely function as it was too hard to switch off my holiday brain. Given it is now December I will be sharing the plans for next year etc, just clarify it for myself what 2010 will be for us.

And finally what the weekend also did was assured us that our future is up on the Central Coast. Just being there felt so right, and it felt like home. Both The Boy and I commented that we felt like locals. It was a great feeling. The picture about is showing Forresters Beach which is where we stayed and I am so in love with the Central Coast and 100% over Sydney that I feel dirty being back here again. Bring on 2010.